h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well I've managed for years with a 19" CRT, but Tom wants it back now, and I might aswell get something at least as big. Anything smaller would just feel silly. I want one with built-in freeview access, and maybe a recorder as well. That's going to cost a fair bit more, even second-hand.

Ah, don't go with the built-in recorder. I speak from personal experience; when the recorder goes you won't be able to hook up a separate one and you'll have to replace the whole enchilada.

I so want a 22" monitor for the computer here now.

Oh, and I posted your parcel this morning.

Wheee! Look forward to it, thanks!

I've enclosed four other movies in addition to the Space Ghost, that I think you'll like; two of them you'll remember my asking you about and two will hopefully come as a surprise. Hope you enjoy them all as much as I did.

There's also a book you might enjoy and a little bitty silly thing. Hope it doesn't take ages to arrive!

If you're keen on Albini... do you have any Shellac? I do.

They interviewed him in a Naked Raygun documentary that we bought fairly recently.

I'm not at all familiar with Albini as a musician, only as an engineer/producer - he's responsible for four of my favourite albums; Pixies' Surfer Rosa, PJ Harvey's Rid Of Me, Breeders' Pod and Wedding Present's Seamonsters. His no-frills aesthetic really brought out the best in those records, he's seen as a bit of a legend to some. I was interested to discover his studio is only 15 minutes' walk from your place, but that's probably no big deal to you!

As for his own music heritage, I'll do some research. I think I know what else is coming with the Space Ghost, but I look forward to finding out.

It's a bit more than a 15-minute walk, but not much more, if you walk straight along Elston. I used to work about a block away from there and it took me 25 minutes to get home, on account of traffic lights and all.

If you wind up liking Shellac or Big Black, etc, I can hook you up. Should be able to email an mp3 or two.

Herman's most indignant- we've just given him a bath, and you'd think he'd want to be as far away from us as possible, but nope... he's meowling and stamping about in that "pay attention to ME" way.

Aww. Scruffy's been like that lately. He'll mew like crazy to go out, on account of not getting any more food, so I let him out, and 10 minutes later he's back at the door.

Silly kitteh!

I'm *this* close to pushing the "Place Order" botton at Amazon for volumes 1-19 of the shoju manga series "Fruits Basket". I recently got the anime series, and loved it... K watched with me, and he even liked it. I guess I'm second-guessing myself because the series really is geared toward teenage or young adult girls, so I'm probably at least a decade "too old"... but I want *all* the backstory, *all* the additional characters, and I want to see how it all ends.

I feel like a dope dropping $150 for manga, at my age... but I do work hard for it, so why not...?

Hey, you enjoy it, do that thing. I don't have much knowledge of manga, though Akira is the classic I know and am honour-bound to get at some point. A lot of it seems either borderline-pedophilic or worse, though. Big deal about tentacles, too.

But! I just remembered a film called Spirited Away that was just beautiful. Part of a series by someone, I got it for Tom a few years back.

And there was some great 80s kid's stuff - Haim Saban and Shuki Levy were etched on my brain at some point.

"Spirited Away" was good anime, yeah. Have you seen "Howl's Moving Castle"? There are a few more anime I'd like to see. I also quite liked "Akira". This one's a bit more fluffy, but I found the characters immensely likeable. I'll look up those last two you mentioned.

I liked the sound of Howl's, will look for that.

Got a recent DVD release from Netflix yesterday, "The Orphanage". Know anything about it?

Not a thing. Let me know what it's like!

Okie doke. It's in line with "The Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett Story" and "Funky Forest", but we should get to it by the weekend. No Geezer practice tonight or tomorrow, so we've got plenty of time.

Watched it last night. That guy who did "Pan's Labyrinth" (which I think is termendously over-rated) was involved, and it shows. While the story's based on a fairly typical ghost story- think "Turn of the Screw"- it's really well-developed, IMO. I'd rate it say, 6 out of 10 overall. I certainly found myself feeling the tension, and there was a slight twist to the end that I didn't quite anticipate. Worth a rental, I'd say.

Cool, I'll look out for it. Coincidentally I just got Pan's Labyrinth from my cousin, which I'm about to sit down and watch on my new TV.

I couldn't go too crazy if I wanted to eat this month, so I went with a 19" HD ready with built-in digital TV, for £180. Happy with it so far. My boss got me a DVD of the last Doctor Who Christmas special (feat. Kylie ) and a little charm, that spins and flashes blue when my mobile goes off.

The built-in tuners are important. I don't watch much TV, but I'm wishing I'd gotten a tuner for my PC so I could record Law & Order on Wednesdays. It's not on till 9, and Thursday mornings are insanely busy for me, so I rarely manage to stay up, which means I miss drooling over Jeremy Sisto as much as I could.

I wish I could've gotten a slightly bigger set, but I mis-judged the space it would take up, and I'm hardly going to buy a second set just to get a few extra inches of screen.

Hiya love- see you're online. Me, too. 11 PM, not ready for sleep yet...

5am and I've been up for an hour already. Weekend plans?